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The Courage to Commit Series
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We are in the midst of a series entitled The Courage to Commit. This has been one of the most transforming series we've ever done. I encourage pastors to preach with the seasons because every church goes through two seasons: a grounding season and a gathering season.
In a gathering season, you try to get as many people as possible to come to church. You preach something exciting and fun that won't challenge people as much, but will certainly get them to come. That's when you do relationship series and things that get everybody excited.
Then comes the grounding season—when you help people become grounded. That way, when life's storms come, the billers may roll and the breakers may dash, but you will not sway because you're what? Grounded. Like a tree planted by the rivers of water, life may toss you to and fro, but you won't break and you won't fall because you're grounded.
I'm excited about Courage to Commit because this series in 2023—the sermons, the lessons, the devo energy we've been doing—has been grounding people. I'm getting testimonies that have shifted. Where I used to get testimonies like "Pastor, church was off the chains," now I'm getting testimonies like "I blocked them and ain't took them off block yet." Now I'm getting testimonies: "I've been faithful over the things God's calling me to do. It's my first year tithing. It's my first year trying to do right. Pastor, don't miss a devo energy. I be at work with my earbuds on trying to hear what God is saying."
Because I've discovered—if you live long enough, you discover—everything that glitters ain't gold. The stuff I used to chase in my 20s doesn't mean that much to me now in my 30s.
There's a concept: you got guns and you got butter. Guns are the things that show—your watches, your jewelry, your necklaces. Butter is your art, the stuff that appreciates in value. Too much of my life was for show. I didn't have any substance in this season of my life.
But in this season, I want to be substantive. When I speak, I want it to mean something. When I show up, I want my presence to add value. More than anything in my life, when I get hit in 2023, I don't want to break. I want to be grounded. I want to have my footing assured.
We've been in this series, and I've been giving you keys. I started by saying, "I got the keys," but I had to correct myself and say, "I got the key." Because when you get connected to God, He is the master key.
We discovered that keys represent the principles of God that unlock the promises of God. Each week I've given you a different key.
The first key was the principle of generosity—a heart that's willing to give that leads to a life that freely gives. I mean this from the depths of my heart: I am a giver. I am a natural giver.
When I was a little kid in Kingston, on the east side and west side, when I went places—like to the gas station—stuff didn't cost a lot. You could go to the gas station with a dollar and come out with a Big Gulp, some chili cheese chips, pig feet, and a pickle. But even if I had something to drink and my friend didn't have enough money for a drink, I didn't drink my drink in front of him. I would tell him, "Hold your head back," and I would pour a little in his mouth. Or I would take the cap off my Seven-Up and pour a little in the cap. If I bought a pickle, you'd break it in half and keep it in the plastic bag—your hand would be dripping with juice—but you didn't care. You just wanted to give.
It's the principle of generosity.
I don't do for love. I do with love. Hear me when I say this carefully: I don't do for love. I do with love.
I have helped so many people. I've paid bills for people who don't even speak to me anymore. I've been good to folk who, if they had to give their side of the story, would say I'm the worst person in the world. I came through for people and didn't ask for anything back, and now they won't even speak to me. Some of you know what that's like—when the folk you broke your back for won't even stand on two working legs for you.
But I'm not tripping. I'm not tripping because I didn't do it for love. I did it with love.
Which is why if you never say thank you, it don't make me none. Because I realize I didn't have any money when I lent you my money. I was just as broke as you. I just happened to get paid the day you asked me for something. So if you gave me back the $200 I gave you, it wouldn't really change nothing, because I didn't have it to start with.
But I realize my Father is rich. So you ain't got to come through for me. I didn't do it so you could see it. I did it because God was watching. And I know God has a principle called multiplication. Whatever I give to God, He multiplies—good measure, pressed down, shaken together.
Over the next two weeks, I'm going to be pushing everybody in my church to help people go to another level. I don't care about playing games with status—I don't need three usher boys for show. I don't need people dressed in nurses' outfits who ain't been to nursing school.
We got to do stuff that's substantive.
But I do need my educators and teachers to say, "You know what? Once a month I'm gonna go to a service, and at the second service—because we've got so much space at the new church—I'm gonna take a room. Anybody in the church who needs tutoring, just send their kids to me that one Sunday, and I'mma help them. Because I can be generous with my mind, generous with my intellectual property."
Even when it comes to our HBCUs: they struggle because we get degrees from them, then we go about our lives. The only time we come back is to have a party. But we should be going out, becoming successful, and giving back to the place that made us.
This is why our families are broken—because one of you moved out the hood, and now you think that because Thanksgiving and Christmas are at your house every year, you're somebody. You look down on the rest of your relatives because you're the one who made it out. But there's a generation of people getting ready to be saved and paid who realize: when God blesses me, everything connected to me is about to go to another level.
Then I gave you the mindset principle. Now, the mindset principle might be one of the most powerful principles. It suggests that what I believe about me often determines what I believe about God. That's critical. That's what psychologists call projection.
You project your inadequacies or your sufficiencies onto God. If you're faithful, you believe God is faithful. But when you become inconsistent, you tend to think that God is inconsistent. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.
Then I gave you the principle of multiplication. The principle of multiplication suggests that God did not simply create us to maintain. He created us to multiply.
This is my season to shift from surviving to thriving. I'm not going from one stream of income to two. I'm going from one to three all at once because God is able to do exceeding and abundant above all I could ask, think, dream, or imagine.
Even with the new church we got: if God doubled our building from 20,000 square feet, the next building should have been 40,000 square feet. But the next building is close to 100,000 square feet. Because God said, "Since you've been faithful over a few..." Math said, "I'll make you ruler over a little." But God said, "I ain't got time for little. Since you've been faithful over a little, I'mma make you ruler." It's what Dr. Mike Moore from Faith Chapel calls the God of Abundance—God who is able to exceed whatever you conceive.
We also learned the principle of freedom. The principle of freedom suggests that freedom is not doing whatever you want to do. It's doing what you were created to do.
Today, I want to introduce what I believe is arguably one of the greatest keys of the kingdom. I want to give you a key today that may be the key that's blocking your next season. I want to give you a key that may make seven of y'all break up with somebody right here in church. I want to give you a key that may make you exit a group chat today.
It's called the principle of partnership.
The principle of partnership suggests that trusting the wrong people will make you worse, but trusting the right people will help you win.
Why is this important? Please put this in your phone. Please don't leave without this note: Keys are not only God's principles, but keys can also be God's people.
Because even if you're locked out of a room, if you've got somebody on the inside of that room, they can unlock the door.
My barber's name is George—the Aerial Master. I love him with all my heart. He cuts me and all my boys' hair. He pulls up in a Sprinter van. If you want to go to his shop, it's in Ensley, right across from Central Park.
The only problem is sometimes he pulls up late at night. I send the boys out first to get their haircut. Since I'm daddy, I go last. Once I get out there, he cuts my hair, and we have some of the best conversations about being a man, being a father, being an entrepreneur, what we can do to help this city.
The only thing that makes me mad is that for the last seven years, I've been fussing at my boys about not locking my door. "When I walk in the house, WHY IS THIS DOOR UNLOCKED? If I went somewhere and somebody ran in on you and your mama, what you gonna do?" Lock the door.
But the other night, I get through getting my cut. I'm fresh, black out. He got all the grays out. I'm twisted, sponge, whatever you want to call it. I look in the mirror and I'm feeling good. I go to walk in the house to show off my new haircut.
I get to the door, and it's locked. Only one problem: my doorbell don't work right because I messed it up trying to fix it myself. The wiring don't work. I reach for my back pocket to call somebody. I don't even have my phone because I figured I was running to get a haircut and I'd be right back.
Now I'm pulling on all the doors. Front door locked. Side door locked. Back door locked. I'm from Ensley, so I got ready to do something. Then I remembered I could do something that you new school people don't know about.
I walked to the front door and I knocked.
And I discovered: because I knocked, there was somebody on the other side of the door.
Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened unto you.
I don't know who I'm preaching to, but it's some rooms the Devil tried to lock you out of. You ought to shout, "THIS IS MY SEASON."
The door to your financial breakthrough is opening. The door to your peace is opening. The door to your favor is opening. You ought to shout, "KNOCK."
Now, this is where I got to separate the real from the fake. All my English majors, I need your help. Ask—present tense. Seek—present tense. Knock—present tense.
The question ain't "Why are you locked out?" The question might be: "Who told you to stop knocking?"
I don't know who I'm preaching to in here. Because the principles of God might not just be a key. The principles of God may be a person. This may flip the whole church.
Because some people may not be keen to you, but they are a key for you.
Some people may not be keen to you, but they will be a key for you.
Can I give you a quote? Because everybody who can ain't a key. And everybody who is a key ain't... Why you treat them like they're your real family? Because my real kin didn't come through for me.
I don't know who I'm preaching to, but look at your neighbor and say: "Be glad you sat next to me. I may not be your kin. I may not be your blood. We may not have the same last name. But baby, I'm a key. And because I'm a key, if you stick close to me, I can help some doors open."
I don't know who I'm preaching to, but shake your neighbor and shout: "DOORS ARE OPENING. NOT BECAUSE YOU GOT THE KEY, BUT BECAUSE I AM THE KEY."
This is why people who walked out your life are trying to tiptoe back in. Because when they ran up on them doors they used to walk in, they thought they got in that door because of them. They didn't realize they got into that door because they were walking with you.
But think about this: > When praises go up, blessings come down.
That suggests there is something in heaven that's locked up. And your praise is a key.
Your shout ain't just noise. Your shout is a key. We may not have the same key—my key and your key might be in different keys musically—but that just means my key is going to open the door, and your key is going to open the door.
You need to use your key and unlock some stuff. You ought to shout, "DOORS ARE OPENING."
It is impossible to make a sound that is not in a key. Because the praise ain't about how you sing. God didn't say, "Make a pretty sound." He said it ain't even got to sound good. He said it just got to be joyful.
Can I preach to five of y'all who can't sing and you know it, but you be in your car singing the song all wrong in a whole other key, and you just be smiling? But God is like, "I like the way you do that."
Somebody shout, "I'M A KEY."
But just because you're a key, you can't walk around acting any kind of way. No.
With this new building we got, we have staff meetings. And people kept walking in on us. I didn't realize how many people had keys. One day a little old lady walked in and said, "Hey, this used to be the church I used to open up back in the day. I just heard y'all bought it."
For the last month, folk been walking in the building. I wasn't comfortable with that. I keep something on me in case somebody wants to catch me slipping. So I'm sitting there saying, "Y'all better stop walking in this building."
I discovered I didn't know who all had keys. But I knew how to fix the problem. Since I couldn't take everybody's key, I changed the lock.
This is why the Devil is frustrated with you. The key used to have you changed. You ought to tell your ex, tell your haters: "You can't come back. I changed the lock."
And this is why some of you are frustrated with God. Some of you are frustrated because you're doing what you used to do that used to work. But the lock changed.
Moses is in the wilderness. God says, "I need to get some food to you. Water to you. Do me a favor. Use the key of striking the rock." He strikes the rock, and water comes out.
In the next season, God says, "I'm giving you a different key."
In the first season, you had to work for it. But since you've been faithful in this season, you just gonna speak to it.
Because you've been committed, a new key is coming.
When you're doing what you used to do that used to work, but it's no longer working, understand this: the lock changed. Moses is in the wilderness. God says, "I need to get some food to you. Water to you. Do me a favor. Use the key of striking the rock." He strikes the rock, and water comes out. But in the next season, God says, "I'm giving you a different key."
In the first season, you had to work for it. But since you've been faithful in this season, you're just going to speak to it. Because you've been committed, everything you worked for in your last season is going to come easy in this next season. When the last time you looked something square in the face and said something to it? Because Moses kept trying to use old keys in a new season, he never made it to the new land.
Some of you are walking around looking like a janitor with fifty-one keys on your pocket because you don't know how to put an old key away. Have you ever had so many keys that you lost track of which key you used? If you're not careful, keys start looking alike. If you're not careful, you'll retry the same key and find yourself tripping, tripping, tripping.
I had a lock box at my property. When construction workers came, they'd go to the lock box, put in the code, get the key. I was concerned they'd start making keys until I looked at the key itself. It literally said, "Can be copied."
If you're trying to rock like someone else, have their swag, have their favor, be careful. Because the type of key they are, it can be copied. But I want to free you with this: if you would just give God the sense to say, "I'm going to be my own key, because who I am will unlock what God has for me." What God has for you is for you. And what's for you won't miss you.
If people are keys, they will either lock up the greatness in you or unlock the greatness for you. I had a friend who was laughing at me. He said, "I don't know why this boy's church is filled." He watched my sermons online—everybody on TikTok, everybody on Instagram, "Pastor Mike, Pastor Mike, Rock City Church. We are Rock City." He got on a plane and couldn't take it anymore. He came to Birmingham. He said, "Y'all didn't even have church." He thought I had a church like Joel Osteen. He said, "You don't even have a parking lot, Michael." I said, "I do have a park." He said, "No, you don't. You got some grass with some rocks on it."
He said, "We spending all our money trying to get beautiful parking lots and beautiful buildings. We've spent three, four, five, twenty million dollars on buildings, and you're over here in a building I'm not even sure the air works in every week. I'm not even sure it's legal for this many people to be in the room. I am the spiritual Joe Clark. When you come in, I chain the doors."
I keep trying to tell him, "It's not because we sing good. It's not because we preach good. But people come here and watch from around the world because I speak in a way that unlocks stuff."
One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin. But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. (Proverbs 18:24)
Notice the juxtaposition in the text. Notice the purposeful comparison. What's the comparison? It's between a friend and kin. He says even if you got a brother or a friend who's unreliable, your life is going to come to ruin. But if you find a key, they'll be like kin.
This is why seven of you need to stop being mad at people who left you. How are you forty years old still crying about somebody from your twenties? We're going to let that go tonight. I'm getting free tonight. Why? Because you know what I discovered? The text does not say that bad people come to ruin. Bad people with bad partners come to ruin.
Stop being mad at people who walked out of your life and left you. Just like seasons come and go, keys come and go. Certain people aren't permanent—they're seasonal. They're keys. Just like you have to dress for the season, God gives you keys for the season.
There are certain locks that God changed that you keep letting people in. When you're going through something and you say you're in a bad headspace—what does space represent? Rooms. Rooms are sealed by doors. Doors have locks that require keys. When you say you're in a bad headspace, what you're saying is this person has the key to either my sanity or my peace.
She can be thick, she can be cute, she can do that thing you like that drives you crazy. You can be up at night like you don't understand, bro. I got to get to her. Can I free you real quickly? As cute, as sexy, as freaky—whatever you like—that's going to get old if she ain't got a key.
Similarly, he can be everything. He can have a bag full of money, six-pack, tall, dark, chocolate—however you want them. If he don't have no keys, he becomes a bad partner.
I've been on a diet all week trying to do right. I got to get back right. I started feeling insecure around people with better bodies. Then I realized I got keys. I walk around like this now. I ain't got a six-pack, but I got a set of keys that everything connected to me goes up. And when it goes up, it's up.
Studies suggest that one out of every four Americans don't have reliable support. It's the principle of partnership. When you have no one, you stuff your issues. When you have the wrong one, you spill your issues.
You never share how you feel. You never share what you're going through. But when you get the wrong person, you spill it. I packed my bag for a trip to Disney World where I was doing the Disney Dreamers Academy. I didn't know what to pack. I packed jeans, shirts, a suit, swimming clothes. I stuffed it all in my bag. When you don't have no one, you stuff it.
We got to Orlando. My bag comes out of the carousel and all my stuff is open. My swim shirt is all over. I'm embarrassed. I grab my stuff to put it back, and because I had overstuffed it, the zipper broke. That's why you lost it on somebody who didn't even deserve it. It's because you were stuffed.
Your childhood was dramatic, traumatic. Somebody may have touched you as a child. You bounced from home to home and all you've been doing is stuffing it. Your father wasn't in your life. Your mama did the best she could, but it was toxic and you stuffed it. You lost your virginity early. You lost a job. You stuffed it. And then winning starts feeling like losing. God's going to take you to a certain level where winning's going to be awkward. You're going to become embarrassed about winning because you don't know how anybody feels.
This is why I cling so close to the people near me. Because the only way to be stabbed is by somebody who used to pat. I keep my people close to me. But when you have the wrong one, you spill it. Have you ever told something you weren't supposed to tell somebody? Somebody you thought was the right one, then realized they were the wrong one?
Last night I woke up at 2 a.m. with acid reflux. I go to the kitchen. I don't know which one of my kids spilled something on the floor. I cut the light on and can't find the spill. I cut the light off and I clearly see where it is. Certain stuff ain't revealed with the light on. You find out who's with you when the lights go off. When the money's gone, when the support's gone, when the status's gone. It's the principle of partnership.
I want to normalize celebrating people who stuck with you instead of spending all our time talking about the people who left you.
Luke 5:18 tells us, "Some men brought a paralyzed man on a stretcher." The word paralyzed means loss of muscle function—to be unable to move. But here's the critical insight: a paralyzed person couldn't do it if they wanted to. It's not weakness; it's complete loss of function.
Many of us are spiritually paralyzed because we choose our comfort over our calling. This paralysis can manifest in different areas of our lives—emotionally, financially, mentally, socially—but the root issue is the same: we've lost the ability to move toward what God has called us to do.
There are four types of paralysis we need to understand:
Monoplegia: One area is paralyzed. You might be incredible at giving but horrible at praying. Or you're a prayer warrior but won't tithe. One area doesn't work, but the rest functions.
Hemiplegia: One arm and one leg don't work. You have some capacity, but significant limitations in multiple areas.
Paraplegia: Everything below is paralyzed. You have no stability but can still carry something.
Quadriplegia: Everything below the neck is paralyzed. You need someone to do everything for you.
What's your one area? We often have one area where we're paralyzed spiritually. Jesus said, "Forgetting those things that are behind me, I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus." In order to press forward, you've got to get over that one area of paralysis.
However, Paul reminds us that we might be called to have one limitation. Because of the surpassing greatness of revelation given to him, God gave Paul a thorn in his flesh so he wouldn't become arrogant. We're all going to have something we struggle with.
The men in Luke 5 couldn't reach Jesus because of the crowd. Somebody who needed Jesus was being blocked by people who were being nosy. How many of us have friends who can't get to us because we're surrounded by people who don't actually care—they just want to see what we're doing, be nosy, or keep tabs on us?
But these men didn't make excuses. Instead, they went up on the roof and broke through the tiles. Imagine the noise, the commotion. But they were determined.
If you're going to be successful, you need two types of people: diggers and givers. You need somebody who isn't scared to get in the mud and dig. But notice something important in the text—nowhere does it say they cared about how much it cost to fix the roof. Which means one of them had enough resources to handle it.
This is what we don't say enough in our community: one of y'all got to get some money. We've been programmed to ask for hookups and discounts, but then we'll go elsewhere and pay full price. That's backwards.
When someone helps you, bless them in return. If someone lends you something, take money out of your pocket and give it to them as a thank you. Say, "I just want to sow something into your life for helping me." When God sees that He can get something through you, He'll open doors for you.
This is the picture of Luke 5: some men came together and said, "Because you need it, it's our job to make sure you get it." They worked together as a team, as a kingdom, as the body of Christ.
When they let the man down in front of Jesus, something remarkable happened. Jesus looked at him and said, "See in their faith." Notice—Jesus saw the faith of the partners, not just the faith of the paralyzed man. It's one thing to have faith for people to carry you. It's another thing to have faith for them to lower you into a vulnerable position in front of everyone.
That's the power of true partnership. That's the kingdom of God at work.
When they let the man down in front of Jesus, He looked at him and said, "See in their faith." Jesus saw the faith of the partners, not just the faith of the paralyzed man. It's one thing to have faith for people to carry you. It's another thing to have faith for them to lower you into a vulnerable position in front of everyone. That's the power of true partnership. That's the kingdom of God at work.
Why is it important that Jesus saw their faith? Because why would He fix their legs before He fixed their heart? It's easy—if He fixed his legs before he fixed his heart, the man probably would have walked right back into something that would have broken his legs again. So Jesus said, "No, no, no. Before I get you up, let me clean you up."
God has fixed my legs in seasons when my heart walked me right back into some stuff that broke it again. That's the reality we live in.
Can I be honest? I don't have it all together. I will lose it. I'm going to have a transparent moment with you. You want to know the real reason I couldn't go to sleep last night? I got scared. This place is so much like home. It got real last night.
I filed bankruptcy twice to keep the lights on here. I walked in that door with nothing. They said nobody will ever go to a young boy's church. I'm 26. They said give it 10 months, he'll be done.
Last night I sat up wrestling with anxiety. The power bill went from $1,200 to $14,000. I'm sitting there like, "God, I'm out here now, bro." The enemy had convinced me, for one second, that I had to do it all by myself. Then I had to remind myself: I can do all things through Christ. And number two, I got some partners who rock with me.
Around 5:14, that's when it hit me. I sat up and said, "God, I thank you. God, I thank you." For one second, the devil had convinced me I had to do it. Then I remembered—I got some partners who rock with me. And when Jesus saw their faith, He said, "Your sins are forgiven." He told the man, "Take up your mat and walk."
I don't know what you came in laying on this week. It may be anxiety. It may be peer pressure. It may be self-doubt. It may be a court case or a bill that's due, and you're thinking, "God, if you don't do it this week, I might have to go back to what I know to do to get this bill paid." Life comes at you fast.
I want to pray that God gives you the faith to stay committed. You want to know what I discovered? Even if I fall, He's God enough to put me back together again.
This is what God wants—men and women coming together in the spirit of partnership. This is what the kingdom of God looks like. When someone helps you, bless them in return. When someone lends you something, take money out of your pocket and give it to them as a thank you. Say, "I just want to sow something into your life for helping me." When God sees that He can get something through you, He'll open doors for you.
When you have faith like those partners—faith to be vulnerable in front of everyone, faith to trust God and your community—that's when Jesus looks at you and says, "I see that. Your sins are forgiven. Rise up and walk."
Fresh starts and new beginnings. Whatever you're dealing with—spiritual paralysis, doubt, fear—God wants to give you a fresh start. He doesn't want you to move into your next season and start acting brand new. He doesn't want you to change how you feel to accommodate where you're at.
We're taking the spirit of this place with us. God's not just calling me to be a spiritual leader, but also a fiscal and entrepreneurial leader. Sometimes you got to get in it even if it ain't perfect yet. We want to build something in excellence, something that's safe, a place that you can love to call home.
I don't know what you came here wrestling with today, but I want to tell you: Whatever it is, God got it. Look at somebody and tell them, "It's up from here. It's up from here."
I'm praying for every person in this room. I come against poverty and poverty mindset in the name of Jesus. I speak that we are generational curse breakers, generational trendsetters. God, let us come together like never before and heal this community—not from the outside in, but from the inside out.
We thank you for every season where we had people who had keys that got us to our breakthrough. So, I love you, man. I'm praying for you. I speak life over each and every one of you.
